Review: Though flawed, Ailey is a kick

Jamar Roberts and Alicia Graf Mack perform "Petite Mort" with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on Thursday. The company performs there through Sunday. Three programs are offered.ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Southern California's long love affair with Alvin Ailey shows no sign of fading.

At the Los Angeles Music Center's Chandler Pavilion on Thursday, the audience was ecstatic, even raucous at times, as if the late choreographer's company, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, was performing for family and old friends. The company gets a similarly warm reception during its frequent appearances in Orange County.

The Ailey-L.A. connection is special: He moved there from Texas when he was 12 and found an ideal teacher and mentor in choreographer Lester Horton. Ailey also cut his teeth as an artistic director and began to choreograph when he took over Horton's company in 1953.

Ailey is a regular part of L.A.'s best dance season, Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center. The company is offering three programs during its current visit, which lasts through Sunday: "Ailey Spirit" (tonight), "21st Century Ailey" (Sunday matinee) and "Classic Ailey" (today's matinee). The first two feature dances by other choreographers, including the company's present director, Robert Battle; the third program is an evening of excerpts from some of Ailey's best-known choreography. As with all the company's performances, each program ends with Ailey's most celebrated creation, "Revelations."

Thursday's program, "21st Century Ailey," included a work that is a cult classic among young choreographers, Jiøí Kylián's "Petite Mort." Kylián created this ballet for the Salzburg Festival on the 200th anniversary of Mozart's death in 1991. He chose slow movements from two of the composer's piano concertos as accompaniment.

"Petite Mort" begins with its most famous scene. Six men stand in silence with their backs to the audience, each balancing a fencing foil precariously on the end of his index finger. They turn suddenly to face us, take several swipes with their swords, place them on the floor and step on their handles, bringing their tips upward to face us.

It's a spectacular and erotically charged moment that brought a few nervous titters from the audience. (The work's title – "Little Death" – is a French euphemism for orgasm.)

A delicate dance follows in which the foils are used as partners – sometimes gentle collaborators, sometimes dangerous rivals. Kylián's movement invention is brilliant, seamless and constantly surprising. The symbolism embodied by the swords is deliciously complex: the barely contained aggression of masculine energy, the vulnerability of the human body, the combination of playfulness and danger that sexuality can encompass.

The men run upstage and unfurl a billowing shroud, which covers the entrance of six women who are revealed when it is pulled back suddenly – a magical effect.

The rest of "Petite Mort," while less memorable than its opening, is just as enjoyable. Opportunities for virtuosity abound in a series of meticulously worked out and sharply contrasting pas de deux for different couples. The husband-and-wife team of Linda Celeste Sims and Glenn Allen Sims was impressively athletic and sharp-lined.

"Petite Mort" is devilishly tricky, and the Ailey company's execution isn't note-perfect. Inconsistencies of line and timing bedevil the opening scene, but they don't defeat it. The shroud didn't quite cover the women's entrance. They're supposed to materialize seemingly out of nowhere, but Thursday we could see them running downstage underneath it. When the effect is performed perfectly it elicits gasps from the audience. Ailey's dancers aren't quite there.

Other moments shine as brightly as they should. The women's playful dance with six headless, armless torsos – a comic parody of the men's dangerous sword dance – is quirky and full of humorous spirit.

The other substantial non-Ailey work of the evening was "Another Night" (2012) by respected Pittsburgh-born choreographer Kyle Abraham. It exuded the feel of a friendly neighborhood competition, danced to a gorgeous extended version of Dizzy Gillespie's "A Night in Tunisia" that was performed by Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers in a pristine recording.

This work presented many moments for individual talents to display themselves. Jacqueline Green, leggy and rambunctious, started things right with a wild, highly rhythmic solo. Petite but powerful Hope Boykin, a veteran Ailey dancer who is always a standout, performed a whimsical high-velocity duet with Aisha Mitchell. Renaldo Gardner provided deftly executed comic relief.

Artistic director Battle included a brief yet fascinating early work of his own called "Strange Humors" (1998). Two dancers engage in curious forms of athletic play that include imitation and odd facial expressions. Virtuosic but mysterious, it left us wanting more. Gardner and Michael Francis McBride were aptly matched and equally incisive, and John Mackey's score provided the right edge of uncertainty and expectation.

"Revelations" looks as iconic and beautiful as ever. Audiences never tire of this Ailey classic, and the company maintains its legacy as carefully as the Louvre keeps the Mona Lisa. The choreography transcends all the clichés thrown its way over the 53 years since its creation, and its power endures. "Revelations" is a work of ecstasy and pain, intertwined in a way that makes it clear one can't exist without the other.

Jamar Roberts and Alicia Graf Mack perform "Petite Mort" with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on Thursday. The company performs there through Sunday. Three programs are offered. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Michael Francis McBride, left, and Renaldo Gardner perform "Strange Humors" with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on Thursday. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Dancers with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater perform "I Been Buked" from the "Pilgrim of Sorrow" portion of "Revelations" at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on Thursday. “Revelations” looks as iconic and beautiful as ever. Audiences never seem to tire of this Ailey classic, and the company maintains its legacy as carefully as the Louvre keeps the Mona Lisa. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Jamar Roberts, with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, performs "I Wanna Be Ready" from the "Take Me To The Water" portion of "Revelations" at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on Thursday. “Revelations” transcends all the clichés thrown its way over the 53 years since its creation and its essential power still shines brightly. It's a work of ecstasy and pain, intertwined in a way that makes it clear one can't exist without the other. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Dancers with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Ghrai DeVore and Vernard J. Gilmore perform "Wade in the Water" from the "Take Me To The Water" portion of "Revelations" at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on Thursday. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Dancers with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater perform "Processional/Honor, Honor" from the "Take Me To The Water" portion of "Revelations" at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on Thursday. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Dancers with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater perform "Petite Mort" at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on Thursday. “Petite Mort” begins with its most famous scene. Six men stand in silence with their backs to the audience, each balancing a fencing foil precariously on the end of his index finger. They turn suddenly to face us, take several swipes with their swords, lay them on the floor and step on their handles, bringing their tips upward to face us. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Dancers with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Akua Noni Parker and Collin Heyward perform "Fix Me, Jesus" from the "Pilgrim of Sorrow" portion of "Revelations" at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on Thursday. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Dancers with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater perform "I Been Buked" from the "Pilgrim of Sorrow" portion of "Revelations" at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on Thursday. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Dancers with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ghrai DeVore, Alicia Graf Mack, and Vernard J. Gilmore, from left, perform "Wade in the Water" from the "Take Me To The Water" portion of "Revelations" at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on Thursday. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Dancers with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater perform "Another Night" at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on Thursday. It exuded the feel of a friendly neighborhood competition, danced to a gorgeous extended version of Dizzy Gillespie's “A Night in Tunisia” that was performed by Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers in a pristine recording. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Jamar Roberts, with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performs "I Wanna Be Ready" from the "Take Me To The Water" portion of "Revelations" at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on Thursday. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Dancers with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater perform "Another Night" at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on Thursday. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER

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